Principal Practice: Based upon at least two observations using a state- approved, research-based principal practice instrument (non-tenured principals receive 3 observations). Evidence of practice may be gathered through:

Conferencing following instructional rounds

Observation of instruction leadership events including but not limited to

professional development activities

post observation conference

data team meeting

Stakeholder engagement activities such as

Parent conference

PTO meeting

Conferencing around selected artifacts or data

Optional Evaluation Leadership Instrument: Districts may choose to use the State Evaluation Leadership Instruments as an additional measure of the practice of school leaders. These instruments were required during the first few years of AchieveNJ but are now optional and measure how well principals, assistant principals, and vice principals:

Student Growth Objective Average: This measure is an average of every teacher's SGO rating for the year. Assistant and vice principals may use only the SGO ratings of a subset of teachers for whom they are more directly responsible. For more information about SGOs click here.

School-wide Student Growth Percentile (School-wide SGP): This measure is the median score of all the SGPs scores in a school. SGPs at the student level assess how much a student improves on his or her NJ ASK score from the previous year as compared to students across the state with the same previous score.

Administrator Goals: These aligned goals are set by principals in consultation with their Chief School Administrators each year. Local districts have discretion to determine the total number of goals (between one and four) that each administrator sets. Assistant and vice-principals may set the same goals as the principals or may set others that more closely reflect their responsibilities within the school. A wide variety of measures may be used for Administrator Goals and goals that maintain a sustained focus over multiple years are encouraged. Please refer to the Administrator Goals: Updated Guidance and Exemplars (PDF | Word) and the Optional Goal-Setting Template.

Scoring Principal & AP/VP Evaluation

Principal evaluation scores are the combination of principal practice ratings, and student achievement measures. These weights vary depending on whether SGP grades/subjects exist in the principal's school. For more information on principal scoring, please visit the Evaluation Scoring page.

Connecting Principal Evaluation to Teacher Evaluation

The efforts of teachers and principals in driving student achievement are closely connected. For principals, this means establishing an optimal learning environment where teachers are able to do their best work and grow professionally. How well a principal establishes this environment can be assessed using a principal practice instrument, and the Evaluation Leadership Instrument. The Evaluation Leadership Instrument is used by the principal's supervisor to evaluate how the principal establishes collaborative structures and provides teachers training, feedback, coaching, and professional learning opportunities in implementing AchieveNJ. In addition, the principal must demonstrate that she and her staff are conducting high quality observations that fairly and accurately reflect teaching performance and that teachers are using high quality measures of student achievement in the form of SGOs. In response to feedback from educators, the Department has made the use of the Evaluation Leadership Instrument optional beginning in 2016-17. Those districts who continue to find this a useful additional measure of principal performance may include it in their evaluation of principal practice at their discretion.

AchieveNJ can support educators' ongoing professional learning and growth in multiple ways, through both the learning that has to occur to implement the system and the learning that is informed by evaluation results.